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Posted by Dad on November 02, 2000 at 12:11:30:

In Reply to: Re: abuse follow-up posted by What is it with CPS agenciesf?-Grandma Peg on November 01, 2000 at 22:13:49:

CPS is an extremely low paying job. Thet require you to work odd hours (all hours) on call, use your own personal vehicle, and you sometimes have to go into very hostile situations to extract children. This is not very conducive to getting a competant, qualified, educated person to do the work, wouldn't you agree? Often they are either slackers who could really care less, or else zealots who jump at anything.

The answer of course is to have stronger requirements for hiring (such as a bachelor's degree) and a reasonable compensation package to increase the pool of applicants so the losers can be weeded out. And of course, the local prosecuting team has to be effective in putting the bad guys away so that the CPS workers do not feel like their efforts are for not.

Almost always, parents who abuse their children were abused as children. This does not excuse, but does explain why they do what they do. e need to execute tough love to break the cycle, and prosecute child abusers to the fullest extent of the law. We need to have proper intervention, so that the next crop of tomorrow's abusers will be prevented. We need to have better life skills education in the high schools, parenting classes if you will. And we need to have easier access to social service supports for families to avoid crisis, instead of waiting till it happens to punish.

It will cost more in the short run, but in the long run it will pay for itself with the reduction in court cases and prison time, not to mention the human cost of the damaged children.